Ep 225 - Don't Get Comfortable: Become Great

tmc ep4: Welcome to the Manly Catholic. In this podcast, we will inspire, challenge, and equip all men to become the men they were created to be. Join us as we journey together to become the best versions of ourselves and strive to change our communities one man at a time. Hello again and welcome to yet another episode of The Manly Catholic. I am your host, James, and with me as always is Father Dominic. What's going on, James? Just living the dream, Father Dom. How are you doing? Doing good. Living the dream too. So today we wanted to tackle Bishop Olmsted's first question that he mentions in his apostolic exhortation into the breach. And by the way, if you have not yet downloaded, this is a a simple PDF that you can find online. I highly recommend you guys download it, read along with us, follow along. It every time I read it, I always take away so much more than what I did the last time. So definitely want to check that out and I will have a link of that in the show notes for you so you can easily download it. But the first question, just to remind you, is what does it mean to be a Catholic man? And on the surface level, that obviously seems like a very simple question. but I think it's a very profound one and a and one that we need to constantly be asking ourselves because I think as society we've kind of in essence, lost the ability to ask the simple question. So this question was it mean to be a Catholic man is something that I I know Father Dom and I can talk days about, but we'll try to keep it just a one podcast episode. But the his opening line, Ecce homo, behold the man and he goes into a long discussion about Jesus Christ. And I wanted to to kind of expand a little bit about the whole scene with Pontius Pilate and if you I was meditating on this recently and how profound the example of Jesus was, and he hardly said a word during his whole quote unquote trial. where he he was mocked, he was beaten, he had witnesses come in front of him, just tell flat out lies, and his whole he was stripped naked. And n no one first of all, no one came to defend him. but second of all, he never fought back. And that to me is so profound 'cause I don't know about you, Father Dom, if someone were to do all those things to me, I would at least I mean there'd be like a fire burning in me, like you don't know me. I I would have probably thrown haymaker at of Yeah, exactly. But it it to me it really spoke volumes to again, Jesus and I mean he was so in tune with his mission on who he was, what he was here for, that nothing could distract him. There was I mean, we can go talk about, you know, Satan tempting him and the devil. Nothing ever distracted Jesus. He always knew who he was and why he was here on earth. And then I was telling Father Domalo about this. He he brought up when I was in spiritual direction, one of the first assignments he gave me was if you were talking to a group of men, what what would you want to say to them basically? And it's very broad topic, but what I said was I wanted to talk about Jesus Christ and you know, Sunday school answer, Jesus is always the answer, right? But no, Jesus Christ is is truly the the ultimate example of what it means to be a man and anyone, whether you're Catholic or you're Buddhist or you're atheist, if you just look at his life, what he did, I mean it's it's truly is remarkable. I mean he he defended the people that no one else would defend. He He challenged authority, but in a way that was never violent, never caused violence or started wars, but truly just made people think differently. And he encouraged people to love, especially in a society at that time where, if you were if you were lame, if you were a leper, you were basically thrown out. You were outcasts. You were worthless to them. And here comes this this man Jesus, this renegade in a sense, you could think of him as, but truly he he obviously he changed the world. And i in my mind, I mean men in particular, we don't know what masculinity is anymore. So I think this this question, what what does it mean to be a Catholic man, is something that we need to constantly be asking ourselves. And then Bishop Olmsted kind of gives us an answer, but he says, Herein lies the fullness of masculinity. Each Catholic man must be prepared to give himself completely, to charge into the breach, to engage in spiritual combat. To defend women, children and others against the wickedness and stare and snares of the devil. And I mean that that's a lot, if you just think of it on the surface. I mean, these are not easy things to do. And I know you brought up last time, Father Dom, is that men like difficult things, but I mean that's a that's a lot for one man to do. I don't think men know that they like to be challenged. That that Does a does a human being really like to be pushed to do something they don't want to do? You know what I mean? But I think On the surface, no. No, but I think it with men in particular, right? With with that the beauty and power of masculinity can can be unlocked. Its full potential can be realized when iron sharpens iron. Men need men. Right. That and that's what that whole battle thing was about, we talked about the last Last podcast, right? That college battle, that battle of college, is is we need each other for that. To challenge each other. And I think I can think of many instances in my life where I was challenged and I didn't like it. You know, I was called out. I was I was called to do better because what I did wasn't good enough. And it really stunk. Yeah. It it made me mad sometimes. And it made me feel as like I was a failure sometimes too. But if you have a good coach, that coach will bring the best out in you. But but you gotta train. You gotta put forth the blood, sweat and tears. I think that's part of being challenged and for a man in particular, the way that we're built We we can rise to that challenge. And we're talking about Jesus with with Pontius Pilate. Jesus didn't even say a word, but he rose to the challenge. Yeah. And and I'd always I always like to think okay, okay, Jesus is is is God. But I always like to think in those moments where where Jesus didn't say a word, in front of Pontius Pilate, or when he was carrying the cross for the most part, is that he had a father who taught him. What was good and what was right and how to persevere when things got tough. And who was that? Saint Joseph. The terror of demons. The terror of demons, Saint Joseph. As I said to Father Dom one day, I told him he was the slayer of demons, not the terror of demons. So I added a title to Saint Joseph. The slayer of demons. Yeah, I immediately thought of the the the heavy metal band when you said that. But yeah, I men like to be challenged. And I can remember in college baseball that I was challenged by the coach. I wanna I wanted to quit. And he challenged me and I didn't quit. And I I never I I never forgot that moment. And and that was a building block to my masculinity. That was a building block for me moving to boyishness to manhood. There was a little bit of a rite of passage. And I continued to experience that in work before seminary, being a project manager for a construction company. Sometimes I wanted to quit, you know, but I had a good coach, I had a good boss who would help me and walk me through it and he would push me and say, No, I see something in you that you don't see. I see something deep within you that you don't see. If we can bring this out, you will be successful. And isn't that what Christ does to the to us? Again, I think every podcast we talk about this. Well, maybe you you don't, but I do. It's Bishop Ohm said that the the ultimate exemplar of what it means to be a man is Jesus the Christ. Because he challenges us, because he sees in us, because he created us, because Jesus Christ is God. You talked about that assignment I gave you talking about Jesus. Well, you I remember you said, I don't know if you just said it, but I remember you said that, hey guys, you may not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God in the flesh, incarnate, but he changed the world forever, right? And that's that's that power that Jesus can have with us being that that good coach. He can he can change, he can change us. It's always for the better. Just like he did in front of Pontius Pilate, just like he did when he's carrying the cross, just like he did when he was hanging from the cross. And what did he do? He could have snapped his fingers and and turned the Romans into dust or the or the Sanhedrin who put him up there. That he said, No, forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. With authentic masculinity there's attached this love that I think a lot of guys may kind of shrink away from when you say the word love. But being an authentic man is a r i it means you you love radically. You you love deeply. And Jesus Christ shows us what that what that is. In front of Pontius Pilate, in front of the cross, and he's that good coach that can bring out that challenge, you know, in us. So we can rise to the occasion, you know, and grow. And you you touched a bit on on Saint Joseph too and it it ties into he talks a lot in this section on this question in particular about the Saints. And they are and should be our role models. Right? Exactly. There are there are heroes. Exactly. They should be our heroes. Growing up, who was your hero? Who are heroes growing up? I mean, I was a huge hockey fan. So there are hockey players, hockey stars, Hall of Fame. Wayne Gretzky. Yeah, Wayne Gretzky. I mean, y the list goes on and on, but But and you But why? Why why was he your hero? he's the great one. He's the great one, but like you liked hockey. No. You wanted to progress in the sport, so you looked to the best. Right, exactly. And and you touched a little bit on it too. So as as men a or as people, you you said in general we we don't really like to be pushed, but what are the the greatest athletes, politicians, actors, or whoever As your role models were they like to be pushed. Or at least if they didn't, they r rose to the challenge and they said, Maybe I don't want to do this, but I want to become great. I I I think they realized that in order to grow, they had to be to be challenged. In order to get to that next level, right? In order to succeed, they they had to be pushed. The the greatness they wanted was greater than the fear of being pushed. Yeah. Maybe that was is a better way of putting it. And I think in society now, he talks a little bit about this too, but what we hold up in society as manly, quote unquote manly, is not really ideal. And they can inspire us. They can absolutely inspire us, but should they be who we try to emulate ourselves after? I think there are some qualities if they exemplify okay, we talked about this in the last podcast, virtue. Right. Not vice. Virtue. If they emulate virtue and we have a well formed conscience enough to where we can see that that person emulates a virtue that we want and we're lacking, yes. And you touched on virtue, and yes, we should always emulate virtue. But what I really want to talk about is like true examples in society that people are never gonna know about. So like for for those who don't know Unsung heroes. Exactly. So for those who don't know, I'm a home health physical therapist so in essence I travel to to people's homes and and treat them. So my examples of heroes are the the men who go to the assisted living facilities that I go to or even if they're just at home and their wife has severe dementia who has severe Alzheimer's disease does not even remember who he is, but he treats her as if they were just getting married. You can see the love in his eyes that he has for her, even though she's not necessarily the same person that she used to be. I mean, she can't communicate with him, but he Gosh, I've had so many men that have just stepped it up and I see them there and it's like nothing's changed. In your line of work. In my line of work. And, you know, same people. I mean, men who their wife just suffered a stroke and she can't help themselves. And he even sons. I've seen sons that have quit their jobs to take care of their mom. I mean that That is a man. Yeah, that that's authentic love, which is attached to authentic masculinity. Absolutely. just that and that is giving up your life It's sacrifice. It's absolutely agape. It's it's the ultimate form of love. Sacrificial love. Exactly. Attached to Jesus hanging hanging from the cross for us. that those those are the stories we don't hear enough of though. it they that is true just saying Yes, I'm I'm gonna put my life on hold because This woman, whether it's my wife, my my sister, my mom, they need me right now. And I'm a man and I'm gonna step up to the plate because no one else will. even if somebody else will just say, No, I'm gonna take the reins on this and saying I'm gonna do this. And even if they don't get any accolades or affirmations or attaboys, they're still gonna do it because they're not doing it for those affirmations or ac accolades. To say, Hey, wow, look at you, you did something hard. And they just do it because it needs to be N needs to be done. It needs to get done. It needs to be done. Yeah. It needs to be done. No, you're right. And it's and it's virtue and it's good. And it's beautiful. So yeah, I kinda like how we how we how we did kind of layer this. You know, I mean, there's a lot of good people out there that we see all the time, right, in the media. There or do I do I dare say a lot? Some, few? I don't know. You know, and and I I had role models growing up for sure. And all the you know, I was at athletic and know, whatever sport I was playing, I looked to the best and tried to emulate that technique or whatever they were doing, right? And I realized that, you know, the unsung heroes are those whom I call my real role models. And and one of those was an employee at at my family at the family business I worked I worked for, metal fabrication construction. And we we had an employee there Hung Lee from Vietnam and during the Vietnam War he fought for the South. And when the North took over, him and his family barely escaped. And he made it to California and through a ministry outfit. Ended up in Michigan. And they called Kuterior Ironcraft, the company that I worked for, and said, He has experience at metal fabrication. Can you hire him? And we hired him. I couldn't speak a lick of English. And he became one of Our best employees and he worked there for over thirty years. And I always marveled at his story. I mean, this is a man. This is an authentic man. And there's not a lot of people who know this story. And it was it was nothing but but struggle when the North came in and took over the South, living in fear. I mean, he would have been killed if they found out that he was fighting for the South during that time. So they had to live in hiding. And he had a little business there that the the communists came in, they completely took it over. And so he was homeless. What they were doing is is they were They were they were ex a lot of the South were escaping on boats to Hong Kong. And then from Hong Kong, who knows where they're where they where they could go. Wherever out of Vietnam at that point. And I remember him telling me the story about how he had to get his family, him and his wife, and I think they had four kids at that time. And they barely escaped. They barely barely escaped to the harbor and they barely snuck onto one of the boats. And there were two boats. Very big. And both of them were just loaded to the brim. I think two, three hundred people, he said. Dangerous. Dangerously I mean, potential to capsize, dangerous. And it was and then they had they had to make it to Hong Kong. And he tells me the story about how one of the the boat that was with him capsized. And I think I think he said all of them drowned. And they couldn't let them on the boat because it would capsize their boat. So he in so he remembers having to push people off. That we're trying to climb on. And this is all for saving his family. And an awful experience. I, you know, we'll never experience something like this in in our lives. We can only hear the story and maybe feel a little bit of the emotion. But and then when they made it to Hong Kong, he was separated from his wife and his family and he was put in jail. I think for over a year. So he couldn't see his wife and his kids for over a year. And on that, on that boat ride, two of his His older sons got very, very sick and and and as a result of this high fever and no hospital on the boat, I I forgot how long they were on the boat, but for a long time, they were brain damaged and completely brain damaged. I mean couldn't move. Bare I just complete brain damage. And and in Hong Kong they were reunited. And they were picked up by a missionary outreach program again that I said brought him to California. And his kids never healed. So they had when when they came to Michigan and started working for Kateria Ironcraft, when Hung Lee started working at at the shop, he had to find a home, a special home for his two older boys. And I think they had two more kids too. And what Hung Lee did every day was wake up very early. Go to the healthcare center where his two boys were, take care of them. this is four in the morning, three thirty in the morning, take care of them, then go to Katercraft and work, come back, take care of the boys, go back and and care for his family. And he did this for decades, decades and decades and decades and decades. And this is the this was his life. That's what he did. And I d I don't know any man that could do that, honestly. I don't. And this is a no name man. Right. And he he said he believed in God and we would have conversations and some of his conversations he would weep in and or tear up and say, you know, why why would God put me through this? But he he stayed persistent. And then his wife had a stroke. And so now he was taking care of his wife and he was taking care of his two boys. But because of the condition of his boys, they've they eventually passed away. And and now he's carrying. caring for his wife who's who had a severe stroke. and he retired out of the company and but he's he's always remained a role model to me. That that that's a role model. That's a man. That that's a man. You're right, that it's a role model and and that is a man. So as we continue to unpack authentic masculinity, I think Hung Lee I don't think I know that he is a role model for that. And and when things get tough for me, I just say, hey You know what would Hung Li do? Yeah. What what would he do? He would persevere in responsibility. That's that's what it means to be a man. And that's hard. Yeah, I I struggle with that. I'm not, you know, I'm not gonna lie, but at least I have role models to look up to. Coffee and prayer. It's the perfect blend. Mystic Monk Coffee isn't just another cup of coffee. It's handcrafted by the Carmelite monks of Wyoming, roasted with care and infused with prayer. 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Yeah. Only God helped him. But he would question God. for yeah. and every day was a choice. Right. Every day was a choice. He could have walked away. He could have walked out. But he was a man of responsibility and purpose and dignity. Right. I think that that speaks profoundly though too, is that God is not afraid of our anger, maybe, because there are gonna be things in our life That make us angry at God. And we're gonna we're gonna ask ourselves or ask God, God, why did this happen to me? Or why did this happen to this person that I love? God is not afraid of those questions because he overwhelms us with his love and his grace. And to be honest, I mean you we might never know the answer to that why, but he offers so much comfort. I guess is the word I'm looking for, and grace that and mercy that w we'll just I mean, I'm kinda lost for words, but we we just can't experience anywhere else. And even in the midst of this terrible tragedy or this this day in, day out grind where it truly is a choice, and we can choose to rely on our creator, even if we don't. fully understand why it's happening, but say, God, I don't know why this is going on, but I choose to trust in you. And that talking about doing something difficult, sometimes that choice to say, Jesus, I trust in you. Sometimes that is the most difficult thing you do this day. Depending on Sometimes that's the most powerful prayer. Exactly. Maybe that's the only thing you can utter that day. Or Jesus, I I just need you. Or yeah, Jesus, I'm about to give up. Yeah. Like I can't take you know, I can't take this anymore. And and he wants he wants that prayer. He does, yes. Yes. And that's that's something profound though too, is that God wants us at our most vulnerable. Just I think sometimes I know I can get in this habit too, Father Dom, is that I mean you kind of go through the motions of prayer and things like that, but sometimes God just wants you to say, you know, God, I'm I'm mad at this situation, or I don't like what happened today, or you know, my J my son did this today and it it kinda made me mad at him. And I mean sometimes I think we are afraid to and pronounce our not our doubts, but just what we're feeling in the moment and we think, okay, I have to go to God in this very pious state. And God I mean, yeah, obviously that's wonderful, but God doesn't God doesn't need that. He just needs you to show up and say, God, I'm just gonna I have so many emotions right now, I'm just gonna be silent. And that's all I can do for you right now. Yeah. If you can find a church that has Eucharistic adoration, twenty four seven, perpetu perpetual adoration chapel, go in there on and just unload. Sit in silence and just yeah, just in your heart, just give it you know, you talk about that vulnerability, and I think it's hard for guys to be vulnerable. and you know, there's a lot of power and strength there. Saint Joseph was vulnerable. You know, look at all the dreams that he had. And and the angel telling him to do this and to do that. to trust, sure, but being vulnerable. Yeah. Vulnerable to what if I fail? I have Mary, I have Jesus. you know, Mary's pregnant and I gotta do all this. You know, so being vulnerable to God, there can be a lot of a lot of power there, there can be a lot of direction, there can be a lot of healing. And so we we just have to do that. You know, Hung Lee, he was vulnerable. No, he he absolutely was. And you talk we've talked a couple times on Saint Joseph, and that leads into the next kind of segue. Yeah, it segues into the next chunk of the of the talk, but he so he talks about the saints. And growing up Protestant, I hardly knew any of the saints. And it's funny when I met my wife, I forgot what saint she mentioned, and she's like You never heard of you never heard of him. I had that happen to me too. And I was like, no. And so I feel like now I'm playing catch up because they're the Catholic Church has been around for two 2,000 plus years. And there's so many incredible men and women. They've done it before, men. They've been there. They've they've met the challenges that we're meeting and they want to help us. Yeah. And you know and I I like how this is unfolded. Again, we talk about we could have talked about Wayne Gretzky, right? I like Barry Sanders and or Ken Griffey Jr., right? And and then we moved into okay, who are who are these, you know, these people we can more relate to, these unsung heroes, right? We talked about Hung Lee and and we're kind of we're kind of progressing up to this next level of those people are good, right? If they if they exemplify virtue, they're good. Now we're getting into the Saints. Hall of Famers of the Holy If we're really going to have any role models, right, in our lives, it's let's let's let's emulate the lives of the saints because then we begin to unpack something that's not only in our lives and on our prayer novenas and devotions, but it's in the liturgy. Right. Right? The communion of saints in the Eucharistic prayer. We call upon the saints. Twice, if you use Eucharistic Prayer One, which is the longest one and the most beautiful in my mind. yeah, we call upon the saints all the time. Now yeah. So now we're entering into like Yeah. The heavy hitters are the Hall of Famers. Absolut the Hall of Famers of Holiness, I like to call But I mean, no, these these men I mean women too, obviously, but we're gonna talk about men specifically. But I mean these are our brothers in arms. These like Father Dom talked about the key players. I mean he mentions obviously a handful, you know, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Paul. And in the the list he mentions, he talks about the virtue that is associated with each saint, as well as a sin which opposes that virtue. And as I talked about in a past episode, Saint Pope John Paul II is my patron saint and in this particular exhortation talks about defending the weak and then passivity. But I'm actually reading his the biography of Witness to Hope by George Weigel right now. Mm-hmm. And it's a good one. The the things that that man went through, just leading up to being a Pope. Is incredible. he lost his his mom, he lost his father, he lost pretty much everyone that was close to him. And we talked about too his his role model was his father and how important the father is. I mean, he woke up every day and he saw his father praying. I mean, how powerful of a witness is that? I mean, my dad, I mean, my dad, he's not Catholic, but he was my spiritual role model. Every day I would come down And I wake up pretty early, but he was there in his chair reading his Bible. how powerful of a witness is that to a son and his daughters? it's just it's like I say, he never said a word. He just said good morning. But just seeing that and again, it makes me it makes me want to be better. Like I wanna be that man where my sons wake up, I'm up before them, and they see me whether it's praying, whether it's reading the Bible, whether it's doing something, but saying the first thing of my day that I do is I give it to God. that is powerful witness. Without saying a word. Yeah, I didn't know that about JP too. I didn't know that his he talked about his father that way and how how important and powerful that is. And even your witness to that as as as a child growing up. you know, same same with my father is as well. And let's let's face it, a lot of guys listening, may have not have had a father. And that reminds me of of of one one of my good friends, you know, who didn't who didn't have a father. And when he started his family, when he was married and he started having kids, he says, I don't know what what it what it's really like to be a father, but I'm gonna do the opposite of what my dad did. And he has a beautiful family. Talk about holiness, talk about perseverance, talk about building virtue, talk about doing something hard. in in in being that father that that he didn't have to his kids. And we do live in a fatherless society in it heavily in in many ways. And and young men need an alpha male. Young men need a father to show them how to operate in this world. When bo when boys when boys hit the age of reason, they begin looking to the father. T to to know how to be a man, to know how to operate in in in the world that that father goes out into. Be that man, be that father and and set that example to the best of your ability. You may not have good a good father and but who says you have to to perpetuate that, you know? Who says you have to do that? You can change your family tree? You can change a family tree. Absolutely absolutely. Absolutely. The Saints will help you with that. Yeah. And that's what they're there for. I mean That's why they're saints. Absolutely. That's why they're saints. That's why they help you. That's why the church canonizes the these men and women. and and I think too. So they can be examples. Until I actually studied it, it's hard to become a saint. It's not it's not like, yeah, we have a lot of saints, but it's not an easy process. It is a a thorough examination. for the process of canonization. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep. And yeah, well, there's miracles that have to be attached to the saint. And and so it's it's It's serious business. Right. But I think I think too, another thing and I really admire this about Matthew Kelly and his whole ministry, but he he talks about one misconception that we kind of think about is that the becoming a saint is unattainable. It's like, okay, yeah, there's obviously there's Saint Joseph, there's Saint Ignatius. of Antioch, which I know is he's yeah, he's my boy. He's his father Dom's boy and then obviously JP two for me. And we think of the my gosh, like how can I obtain these the status, but it's a good question. Guys, they were they were sinners too. They they struggled. It's part of being a saint, right? Exactly. It's recognizing that. But I think too it yeah, you're you're right. It's recognizing that I'm a sinner. And I need I need Jesus. I need I need help more than anyone. And I think if we just recognize that, and I think starting spiritual direction with with Father Dom has really helped me recognize that I need help and blaming other people for my problems is never is never a solution. As childish. Exactly. As being a boy. Exactly. Exactly. It's it's up t it's holding on to our childish ways and not maturing and growing into being an authentic man. And Bishop Olmsted, he talks about too, he says, Men, we must never believe that holiness and courage are things of the past. You and I are called to a holiness that shows Christ to the world as our forefathers have done countless times throughout history, following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In essence, it's not unobtamable. We can do this as well. We can become saints. You know all the saints They didn't set out saying, I'm gonna be a saint. I wanna be a lawyer, I wanna be architect. So we go to college, go to school, and we work hard, and we move up, and finally I made it. Out of my own choosing, out of my own work. I guarantee you all the saints of the church had no intentions of hey, I'm gonna be a saint. What they did is they fell radically in love with Christ in the church and they lived an authentic life. And and that's all it was. I mean, we're all called to be saints. I mean, I mean that's the Christian ethos. That's that's that's our that's that's our talos. That's our ending goal, is is to be a saint. And and that's what happens when we're in heaven, you know? And what these saints did, if you look at the history in which they lived, what they did is they surveyed their surroundings and they said, Where is it That Christ is lacking. And I'm going to bring the light of Christ to that. Look at Mother Teresa. Look what she did. She brought the light of Christ. And it was love that, that radical love that drove her. You know, Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, it was it was a love of being a bishop and the shepherd of the church at the turn of the first century that caused him to be thrown to the lions. But it it was this it was the saints that that just found where there was dark and they brought the light of Christ. And they did it probably not knowing that they'd be saints. They did it because they they they had a radical love of Christ. It's like yes, we can all be saints. one of the most powerful prayers that I find for myself is yes, asking for the intercessory power of the saints, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Paul, Saint Michael, Saint Benedict, Saint Francis of Sisi, St. Thomas More, on and on and on and on. I like this prayer. I pray to the no name saints. There has to be so many in heaven no name saints. Absolutely. No name saints. No name saints. I've never heard of that. Pray for me. Yeah. Pray for me. No name saints. Because because I want that. I want that humility. I I want that humility that they have. They're not known, but but they're there in heaven. So pray to the no name saints. Maybe I'll s maybe I'll have a shirt that says that. I think they're just waiting for Father Dom. Father Dom is the only one that asked them to pray for them. So there's please follow the no name the no name saints. I I have no idea where this comes from, but this just came to mind where they said, You want to be a man when you get up out of out of bed, Satan goes, crap, he just got up. Like wouldn't that be like that is a saint. But is that's the saint though, where it's like, man. I never thought of that. We can't we can't touch him. But it it's funny, obviously, in a sense, but it's so true. wouldn't you want to be that man where our ultimate enemy is afraid of us because we are are so on fire. Yes, on fire for Christ. Again, we can't be touched if we are on fire for Christ. We cannot be touched. You it's funny, it's funny you say that because again, I think this might be my My modus operandi, every time I go back to the garden. I go back to the garden. And, you know, you said Satan will say, crap, he just got up. Well, I think the serpent would have said the same thing if Adam would have stood up and got in front of the door to the garden. crap, he got up. You know, there's so there's something to be said about what you just said. Is as quaint as that may be, it's there's there's power there. crap, that man just got up. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. We're gonna make another t-shirt. But if Adam would have done that in the garden and and and he didn't, but we can. Yeah. And we can get up every day and do that. And that's the difficult part. Yeah. Is it to make that conscious effort to get up when you don't want to get up, to go to work when you don't want to go to work, to love your wife when you don't really feel like loving your wife, to to be there for your kids when they want to go toss the ball or they Whatever, your your daughter wants to paint your toenails or it's like these are little sacrifices that that that help that make a difference. That change the world. Yeah, no, absolutely. And the thing too is that a a lot of I know a lot of men out there, I mean myself included, who have children, they say, there's there's not enough time in the day to do that. And if you if you look at your day you realize how much time you actually have and how much time you just waste because it's not it's not invested in anything. It's just existing and then it went away. So what are you spending your time on? And what are you doing with that time? Like are you and are you being are you being intentional with it too? Not just are you just there, are you present, but are you truly in the moment? Are you actually present as in are you actually engaged versus I'm just here? I'm a blob of mass. That's not really doing anything, It's it makes a big difference. Yeah, are you engaged? Yeah. Engaged in family. That's the key. I mean, we've talked a lot about the saints in this episode, and those were men and women who were engaged each moment, and they said, you know, God, I'm giving this to you. And I think that's something that my mindset is starting to shift in is that think I I am a steward of the things that you have given me. I don't own anything. Like you are putting my wife and my children into my care, but they are yours. Right. That's exact your job as as a husband is to get your wife to heaven. Exact exactly. And I know that he talks about this more later on. And that is so is so key. But I think men, if if you if you're married and you have children, if you realize that, it it changes the way that you approach your day versus focusing on what am I gonna do today versus God, what do you want me to do today? And just asking that simple question every day is as simple as it is, is profound. And it can and really change your your outlook on on your life, to be honest. Yeah, that's the path to be becoming a saint, right? Right. A journey of a thousand miles takes the first step. So you you just you just take it. You live it you you you live in the moment in many ways as well too, right? Just take it one one day at a time. So there's a couple quotes here that I want I want to just read for you guys because I thought they were really powerful. The first one's the first one is by Blessed Pierre Frasati. says to live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living but existing. And the second one is by Pope Benedict the Sixteenth. You are not made for comfort. You're made for greatness. And then Bishop Olmsted as his c adds his own comment Any greatness that we might merit as a Catholic man depends upon this fight for holiness. I mean those are just So profound for me, especially, 'cause I don't and and to be honest, that's one of the reasons why I wanted to start this podcast was I don't want to just exist. I don't want to just be a blip in history. And not that I want it to become well known around the world, but I Father Dom, you and I talked about this. If we can just affect one man's soul with this podcast with however long it goes on, then it was a success. If we can change one man's identity change one man's thought process that he approaches every day and say, you know, I wanna be I wanna be holy, I wanna be a saint. I mean then that's fine. Yeah. I I'll gladly accept that. I I agree. I agree. That that's that's the foundation. Those are the building blocks. I think I think I'm gonna be a little bit more bold and and say that the the antidote to the culture of death is authentic masculinity. I'm just gonna be bold. I'm gonna say it, men are called to be spiritual warriors. We're not called to be man boys, right? We're not Peter Pans. We're not called that's right, we're not called to be in this Peter, you know, be a you succumb to the Peter Pan syndrome, right? Men men are called to fight. We are. And and that's okay. That's okay, but h how do we do this? Get get to church. I I I don't know It really this really is simple my Christian brothers in arms, I don't care what denomination, get to church. My Catholic brothers get to confession, receive the Eucharist, embrace the sacraments, get in a state of grace. But I don't I'm still str I'm still struggling and it but But I know there's potential in in in men, in authentic masculinity, and I do really think that we can change this culture, we can change this world. And the baby steps, prayer, get to church, lead your family. Start there. Yeah. Start there. he he talks about perfect segue here, the practices of a committed Catholic man. And he gives you examples. he talks about daily, weekly, monthly habits that you can adopt. I mean, pray every day. I know we we've talked a lot about that on this podcast. Examine your conscious before going to sleep. That's something I recently. Yeah, find out look at your day. Look at sins of omission, things you didn't do and should have done. And things of commission, things you have committed. There's two types you know, there's two types of categories when it comes to that sin, commission and omission. Don't you can't forget about the omission. Right. Exactly. Things that you failed to do. And that's not to beat yourself up or hold yourself down. It's it's all about becoming the best version of yourself. It's like know know thyself. Right. You have to know your strength and you have to know your weaknesses if you're going to grow. It's it's again, we talk about being vulnerable and saying, God, I'm sorry I messed up. I want to be better. Find a good group of guys to hang out with absolutely and if you have to change friends, do it. Yeah. if you're hanging out with friends, you're smoking dope, you're drinking beer, playing video games all day, watching porn, stop it. Yeah. It's not fulfilling you. It's not fulfilling you. Stop. That's the Peter Pan syndrome right there. Exactly. Stop. Man up and and find a group of guys that that will help you. Right. Absolutely. I'm become a saint. Become a saint. That's simple. That's another T shirt. That's another T shirt. We have a lot of t shirts to be making these last couple episodes. But I mean he says, read the Bible, keep the Sabbath, monthly, go to confession, build fraternity with other Catholic men. I mean, in in principle, these these seem simple, but how many of us are actually doing that? I mean, going to mass every week, making that that ties in with keeping the Sabbath. No Just Yeah. making Sunday keeping the Sabbath a d a holy day, giving it to God. And people don't even know what that means. They don't even know what that looks like. And we need to get back to that. Listen, guys, it i fathers, it's not a day to get caught up on sports. No. That's yeah. That's a big that was a big struggle of mine. We can talk about that more later. but reading the Bible too, I mean, doing the daily readings I think is something that's been profound for me. Let me back up. Yeah. I'm talking I'm talking about hey, watching football, okay, whatever, right? I'm talking about Father, I'm sorry, I missed Mass on Sunday because we had a soccer tournament. That's what I'm talking about. I wanna I need to clarify that. Because Father Dom and I love our sports. Yes. But no, it's but no, keeping keeping the Sabbath. And I think another thing too is that just starting the habit where it's just We're family that goes to church every Sunday. And I I remember speaking to my wife before we were married and growing up not Catholic, it wasn't obligatory to go to Mass every Sunday. And so it was sometimes it was a priority, sometimes not. And just seeing my wife now wife's example of No, I need I need to get to church. And These are subtle things I'm now discovering about just her example and again it talks about I mean, a lot of times your actions without saying a word speak so much louder than what you actually say. Yeah. And just having my wife and and now I'm obviously I'm I'm going to mass every Sunday and I tell that to my son, like sometimes you go during the week too. Yeah, exactly. I mean, but it's saying Noah, it's my son, and Noah, it's Sunday today. Today we get to go to church and pray to Jesus. And he's only he's barely two. But even just starting that example, I think is it's it's really powerful because as he grows up, he'll get that example like, it's Sunday, we go to church now. That's part of being the priest of your domestic church. Right. Exactly. But I mean it's such a simple thing, but yeah, a a lot of a lot of us men, and you know, I'm not you know, I'm I'm not trying to guilt trip you all, but for those of you who don't, but 'cause I was there too, I'm I mean ma church was not really a priority in my life. long period of my life. Yeah, same me. Same me. And and discovering how important it was, just getting that spiritual fruit every week, I mean, that's like the bare minimum. And I mean just leaving leaving church now, it's it it really recharges your batteries. And then if you can go, obviously daily is incredible experience. Even if you can just go once during the week just to refill your tank, I mean, because we're constantly assaulted by the devil. Yeah. Yeah, it takes it takes a lot of energy out of us and going to mass helps rejuvenate that. So going to going to church, whether Protestant or Catholic, it's yeah, there there there is that that sense of like you said, refilling refilling your spiritual tank. Like giving you giving you that spiritual grace and and energy to make it through the week. And God knows us. He created us and he knows we need it. So he gives it to us. It's like, Yes, keep the ho keep the Sabbath holy. Keep keep keep the Lord's day. It's And and it's not because he wants to control us. He knows we need it. That's why he does it. He he no, he he knows us better. he knew us before we even created. Yeah. And I think that's something we forget. that a big thing too is that sometimes we kind of like, like there's all these rules and regulations and you know, it's restricting, but no, they're there to give us freedom because God knows what's best for us. And as soon as we recognize that, gosh, that changes your perspective on things. Yeah, it it really does. It really does your whole life. Absolutely. Yeah, like I said, you end up wanting to go, not because you you have to go, but because you truly want to go. Right. Again, it's entering into that relationship. You want to be you want to be with Jesus because you have that relationship. And that's that's what a deep relationship does. It creates that desire. Right. You know. So Father Dom. The Father Dom challenges next. What do you have for the Well you know, we were talking about we were talking about saints, weren't we? And I think I think my first challenge a while back, I don't know if we've been doing this every podcast, but the one challenge was find a saint, wasn't it? It was. I think it was the first challenge. I think that wa I think that was the first the first challenge was you can't use that again. Was the find was the find a saint. No. No, I can't. I can't. I can't. You know, I I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna throw out a big one. And you know, for all for all you Catholic men out there. Really pray about going to confession. If you haven't gone in a long time, really, really think about it. You can find find a f your local priest or a different parish, get on the website, find when they're having confessions, and and go. But before you go Just ask this Holy Spirit to reveal to you what you need to say, just what's on your heart. And yeah, and let that be just a powerful moment. So pray about it. But I I just I want to challenge you guys to do that. Yeah, get to confession. Absolutely. And be vulnerable. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable with God. He's there for us. He always will be. He's always by our side. Don't ever forget that, man. All right, Father Dom. You think that's it? All right, man, so That wraps up another episode here on the Manly Catholic. We look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you all so much for tuning in to another episode of The Manly Catholic. If you have not already done so, please hit that subscribe button wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss a single episode. It will also help grow the show and reach as many men as possible. We truly think this podcast can change families and help men to change the world. Thank you again so much for tuning in and God bless you.